Once Upon a Time

Can you imagine a place where the air continuously wafted the scent of chocolate? Where the buildings looked like legitimate works of art with elaborate details carved from gold? Where even the mere pavement that people stepped on appeared to be intricately planned and designed? How does a place seemingly so poetic exist out of fiction? But I found it. I found the "land far, far away" that fairytales always found themselves mentioning. There is no other place more worthy of being a fantasy setting than Belgium.

The Atomium

The first place that we were designated to visit in Belgium was The Atomium. The Atomium was originally built in 1958 for the Expo '58 event - the Brussels World Fair. The unconventional infrastructure is actually a representation of a magnified unit cell of an iron crystal. I would be lying if I claimed that I wasn't immensely excited about seeing a chemistry-related establishment. I was, in fact, the first one out of the tour bus, giggling while haphazardly running towards the infrastructure. Having numerous chemistry units in college converted me into a chem fangirl, and this is despite the fact that I suck at the subject itself.

Fun fact: At the topmost level of The Atomium is a restaurant - the aptly named Panoramic Restaurant. I can only imagine the view of Belgium that the restaurant would have offered! Unfortunately, the time crunch decided to be a villain against my Europe whims again.

The Manneken Pis

Following our photo stop at The Atomium, we found ourselves visiting the Manneken Pis - arguably the most famous landmark of Brussels, Belgium. The Manneken Pis or the "peeing boy" is a small bronze statue depicting a young boy peeing into a fountain basin. I'm honestly not quite sure why this vaguely obscene statue is such a hit among the tourists. I practically had to elbow my way through the flock of people just to catch a glimpse of the le Petit Julien.

The Brussels Town Hall

It just isn't possible not to fall in love with the details.

Oh, just casually posing. W h a t

The "land far, far away" I was referring to is the Grand Place or the Grote Markt. The Grand Place is the central square of Brussels, and all the buildings surrounding the square are breathtakingly beautiful. As you weave yourself through the pretty guild houses, the array of streets had plenty to offer as well. A spot as enchanting as this unquestionably deserves its title as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Authentic Belgian waffles!

My belly attests to the fact that the food was delicious.

As my mom and I made our way through the streets directly connected to the square, I understood why the air unmistakably smelled of chocolates. Chocolate shops seemed to be in every corner; in fact, every shop seemed to be selling at least one type of chocolate! However, the best thing about shopping for chocolates was that every shop that we entered gave us free samples. The locals didn't even skimp on the free chocolates - you could grab as much as you wanted! Thank You, Lord, for the generous Belgians and their wonderful Belgian chocolates! (Don't even get me started on just how wonderful the Belgian truffles are!!!)

But it wasn't just the chocolates that made my visit worthwhile. I took advantage of the fact that I was in Belgium and bought myself a waffle! One plain waffle was horribly overpriced, but it isn't everyday that I get the chance to taste an authentic Belgian waffle. Not surprisingly, my money was put to good use - I've never been so satisfied by food before - and that's probably saying something, considering the fact that I could never bring myself to diet because of my intense love for eating.

I never knew it was possible to get overly attached to a place that you've only spent a few hours in, but Brussels, Belgium made me fall madly in love with it in the span of less than a day. Perhaps someday my story will end in an "and she lived happily ever after in Belgium". (And delusional Lesley Anne is back.)

Where the wild things are.

So I’ve been on a blogging hiatus again, haven’t I? My obvious lack of posts isn’t because I have nothing to blog about, but rather due to my sheer talent to procrastinate and just lie around in bed all day. Unproductivity becomes me. Since I don’t want to leave the rest of my Europe tour unblogged, this is the part where I continue my fact-spouting and random musings pertaining to the places I’ve been able to visit.

The Actual Post:

By now you’ve probably watched or read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. If you haven’t, I’d bet that you’re already aware of what TFIOS is all about due to the incessant ranting of your friends or cyber friends about how badly they felt after watching or reading the said movie/book. One of the major plots of the story is how Hazel Grace got the chance to meet her favorite author through the people who grant wishes of children who are, to put it crudely, on their deathbeds. The fictional author – Peter van Houten – resides in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and is perhaps the setting for 30-40% of the story. I’ve found the need to insert The Fault in Our Stars in my blog post because it is what I associate most with Amsterdam, and not the fact that weed is legal or that it houses the infamous Red Light District. (Always the nerd, Lesley Anne.)

Typical tourist photo

Our first agenda in Amsterdam was to visit Coster Diamonds and the Diamant Museum, which as you could probably guess from its name, is a diamond museum. Coster Diamonds remains to be one of the few diamond polishing factories in the world that is still operational. The Crown Jewels of United Kingdom is courtesy of this company, and a replica of the famous crown was on display inside the museum.

Within a secured room, they showcased some of their creations, along with diamonds that were yet to be set. The presenter gave us tips on what to look for when purchasing diamonds based on the 4 C's - clarity, color, cut, and carat weight. He also advised the single ladies not to accept an engagement ring if it didn't reach the standards that he set for us. But he was kidding, of course. Or perhaps not.

Please excuse the reflections, I shot these through the glass window of the boat during the city tour cruise.

The trend: narrow houses.

The futuristic-looking structure is a theater, if I remember correctly. 

In order to see as much of Amsterdam as we could in a day, we went aboard a city tour cruise. Sadly, that meant we were only able to enjoy the facade of the city. The cruise did however provide us with facts about the city that we probably wouldn't know had we walked around by ourselves. Notice how most of the houses are narrow, albeit tall? The reason for this is because in olden times, the wider the house, the bigger the tax that you had to pay.

Yes to free beer!

As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, travelling on pre-planned tours don’t give you much time to engage into the heart of the city; to actually delve into the lifestyle of the country; to explore and relish in the ambience of particular places that you want to go to.  There is always a time limit, and the time they give you is never enough. That time crunch bothered me most during our stay in Amsterdam – I wasn’t able to enter the Van Gogh Museum or the Anne Frank House, which was my reason for wanting to set foot in Amsterdam in the first place. There is an abundance of museums in Amsterdam, and although it broke my heart a little at not being able to see most of them, the tour did include entering the Heineken Museum. (At the back of my mind, of course, I begrudgingly asked why we couldn’t visit the Van Gogh Museum instead… Before you judge me – understand that I don’t even like alcoholic drinks. Oops.) Given my non-attachment to beer, I surprisingly had fun, courtesy of the Brew You Ride, where the people were supposedly the beer. Yes, I was "brewed" and "bottled" and "sent out to a grocery store".

Once you exit the room where they give you a glass of Heineken beer to enjoy, there's a party lounge that looked extra cool. I would've preferred to stay and party in that lounge with hot European boys, but my mom was being extra motherly in Amsterdam. Perhaps she thought being in Amsterdam would suddenly make me wild... which it would probably have, had I been given the chance. (There goes my goody two shoes reputation - if I even had it in the first place.)

I think I need a shelf of cheese in my room too.

The "happy" farmer

After being exposed to the urban side of Netherlands, we also found ourselves exploring the countryside - the more tame part of Holland. Since nothing says Holland more than windmills, clogs, and cheese, my tourist-self needed to see the aforementioned specialties. Our tour took us to a small cheese and clog factory, wherein the resident farmer and his family made the cheese and clogs from scratch.

Being that cheese is something I claim that I cannot live without, this was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Aside from being able to see how cheese is made, they also gave out free samples of their cheese! (I may have gone a tad bit overboard in buying their unbelievably good smoked cheese.)

Mom and her house crush.

Could I please, please, live here too?

Before moving on to the next country, we stopped by the quaint town of Volendam. Everything about Volendam was lovely - the weather, the beachfront, the cute houses, the long queue of souvenir shops and restaurants, the politeness of the people. I was quite taken with Volendam, and if I could just up and go right now, I would head straight to that picturesque town.

Twenty more points to Volendam for not being too expensive! In fact, everything they sold in Volendam is considerably cheap in a continent where a "non-expensive" bottle of water has a value of roughly 60 Philippine pesos. My cheapskate self approves.

Ignore me and my super happy/kilig expression. Ugh.

By the way, I met this cutie handling the cash register at one of the souvenir shops in Volendam. Say hello to my future baby daddy!!! I'll come back for you, guy-I-can't-spell-or-pronounce-your-name! Ha. Hahaha. Ha. Nope.

Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters were right to choose Netherlands as their dying wish. I would too. (And not just because of the cute cash register guy.)